ST HELIERS BAY FESTIVAL:

On behalf of Eastern Bays Hospice and dove house I want to extend a huge thank you to all you wonderful people out there in the Village Community, Wendy Caspersonn, the Rock-up team and staff at dove house who give their loyal support and hard work for our cause year after year.  It is truly appreciated, bless you.

Also thank you to our Chairman John Hackett and his team of Board Members who also joined us on this magic sunny day.

No figures in yet, but the Dove Shop, the children’s entertainments, and the sausage sizzle were buzzing the entire day, so it can really be counted on as a perfectly rewarding day for everyone.  Of course we couldn’t have done it without our trusty volunteers, their friends and family, and those of the BNI teams who so willingly supported us as well.

Again my sincere thanks to everyone for your help,

Kind regards

Marilyn

Marilyn Nething

Manager of Volunteer Resources

A definitive finding was that SMEs like doing good, so long as it is within their close sphere of influence, namely around supporting staff and their local community by donating their time and money.

The study also revealed that while SMEs are conscious of the environment, they don’t know what to do about it. This is in keeping with the finding that SME’s keep their altruism local, while seeing things like the environment as a bit too big picture for them.

BNI New Zealand National Director Graham Southwell launched the findings of the study on national television this morning, in the first stage of a national media rollout.

View the segment here.

The latest edition of the Hospice NZ magazine – The Review – is now available online and it is very gratifying to be able to quote what it says with regard to BNI under their National Partners section:

BNI has been supporting hospice since 2005, officially becoming a national partner in 2007. Over those six years BNI has donated more than $440,000 to support our work. Once again during 2010 BNI Chapters throughout the country worked exceptionally hard raising funds for their partnered hospice and nationally BNI supported the Palliative Care Scholarship Programme – in total over $129,000 was donated.

READ MORE:

BNI member Tony Allwood’s new book, ‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’, has not only been endorsed by Ivan Misner, but was recently also translated into German by BNI Switzerland.

‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’ is a hands-on tool with worksheets, tips and suggestions to help you be more referrable. Tony’s experience in business has shown him how easy it is to get derailed by the hectic pace of running your own company and believes it’s important to keep things in perspective.

‘I see my fellow BNI members as an extension of my business – they are an important aspect of what I do and as such I need to prioritise them into my day.’

Tony, a 10-year BNI member, has built W3, a successful web design business, on word-of-mouth referrals and very little else in terms of marketing and advertising.

Tony’s book will show you how to spot referrals and opportunities by doing things differently. You’ll find suggestions to help you develop usable ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing skills as well as guidance on planning your one and ten minute presentations, refining your memory hook, learning to dance and use props, and training your chapter to find you strong, qualified referrals.

Tony has been contacted by BNI Korea about further translation opportunities and is particularly excited about the idea of penetrating the Indian market.

Learn how to find more referrals and build strong relationships with your business colleagues by going to www.beyondthecomfortzone.net, where you can buy ‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’ online.

Alternatively, buy an annual subscription for $2.50 – delivered to your Inbox in palatable chunks over 52 weeks.

“Successful networking is about constant activity and Beyond the Comfort Zone offers common sense ideas that will help you build your social capital and become a more active networker. … Tony Allwood offers wise, fresh insights and simple, easy to implement strategies that will empower you to master the art of networking and significantly increase your referrals whether you are brand new to networking or have been practicing it for years.”

Dr Ivan R. Misner, NY Times Bestselling author and Founder of BNI and Referral Institute

Beekeepers fear an alarming phenomenon that is wiping out bees and leading to reduced food crops around the world has reached New Zealand.

Colony collapse disorder has caused American beekeepers to report losses of up to 90 per cent in some cases, prompting fears of crop shortages.

Honeybees are the planet’s most effective pollinators, and industry leaders in New Zealand are calling for an investigation into the problem.

National Beekeepers Association joint chief executive Daniel Paul said reports coming in to the group were causing concern.

In the past six months, it had received reports of significant bee losses – up to 30 per cent in some places.

READ ENTIRE ARTICE

The following steps have been taken in support of our members in Christchurch – effective immediately.

Firstly as of tomorrow, all chapters in Christchurch will be put into a Fee Suspended state for the following 3 months. This means that memberships are in effect frozen as is, and will not age for the next 3 months. This will give members and chapters alike time to reassess where to from here, whilst still allowing the chapter to meet and access members details and record stats.

Secondly we have negotiated with New Zealand Finance & Loans that any member currently paying off their fees via the Finance option, will have a moratorium for 3 months before they need to make another payment..

Thirdly Sue & Graham the NZ BNI National Directors will meet $1 for $1 any donations made to the BNI Red Cross site up to $5,000.

Fourthly we have reactivated the BNI Christchurch Earthquake group on BNIOnline and are listing all offers of help on this site. We have offers of accommodation, use of offices etc. coming in as well as fellow BNI chapters wanting to support other BNI members. We are driving everyone to this site and would ask you all to make contact directly and also to pass this information on to other BNI members who may not yet have email or internet access. The Direct link is: http://www.bnionline.co.nz/group/christchurchearthquakebnisupport or Click Here

Know that we are all thinking of you and hope these steps will in some small way help as we believe that the support offered by your BNI groups in the coming months may be a very important aspect of doing business and supporting each other.

Fiona Harrop

BNI New Zealand – Operations Manager

That being said – I thought that it would be useful to refer the readers of this blog to the BNI New Zealand Social Networking site – which provides a forum for members and non-members in which they can communicate – request help and offer assistance.

To view the site – CLICK HERE

Graham

Both BNI directors in Christchurch, Alastair Christie and Sam Williamson and their families, are safe.

We like everybody else, are waiting on news about the welfare of all our members in Christchurch. While we wait, our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time.

BNI New Zealand has set up a relief fund. 100% of any donations will be passed on to the New Zealand Red Cross to aid relief efforts in Christchurch.

To donate to the BNI fund for victims of the Christhchurch Earthquake – CLICK HERE

The goal of the video is to raise the awareness of BNI and hopefully to assist with attracting visitors. We have attempted to highlight the concept of BNI and Givers Gain; namely working in relationship with others and the spirit of giving – as opposed to focusing upon what happens at a BNI meeting. We would like to think that we have achieved what we set out to do – and would welcome feedback.

Wishing you all a prosperous 2011

Graham and the team at BNI Support.

The 7.1 earthquake was a reminder of how vulnerable New Zealand is to natural disasters. The earthquake was of a similar magnitude to the quake in Haiti in January that claimed more that 200,000 lives and left the capital Port au Prince in ruins. Thankfully – across Canterbury the number of injuries were limited and the response from the emergency response teams, the Red Cross and local authorities, government departments and agencies like the Salvation Army and Civil Defence made a huge difference in terms of reducing the degree of human suffering.

Pictured below is James Araci – National Fundraising Manager for the New Zealand Red Cross and myself at the Red Cross National Office in Wellington earlier this week.